Tips for Adding Call-to-Action Buttons on Your Website

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Miami Web Design

The call-to-action button is a very important tool that can improve the design of your website for users. Using call-to-action buttons makes it easy for users to progress through your site, although there are some techniques that should be applied to reduce friction that can slow down a user. Here are some tips for using call-to-action buttons in your website design.

1. Careful Wording Because the buttons are used for actions (Download, Open an Account, Checkout), they should always begin with a verb. Think about how a customer would phrase the action and use the same words as your customers, avoiding industry phrasing. For example, instead of a button saying “Get a price estimate,” use “Get a quote.” You should also consider cultural differences when you choose the wording of your buttons. A good example is “Add to Shopping Cart” vs “Add to Shopping Basket,” which Amazon.com uses on their US and UK websites.

2. Positioning is Important Your call-to-action buttons will be much more effective if they’re positioned properly in your design. Emphasis the button by removing clutter from the page and put the button with the content. If the page, for example, is a list of costs associated with a service, be sure to repeat the button at the bottom of the page so users can find it easily.

3. Using Color Color is also an important way to emphasis your buttons. Because the buttons are designed to direct users to the most important information on your website, they should stand out from everything else. It’s usually a good idea to make the color of the button unique and not shared with any other design elements on the page.

4. Choosing Button Size Bigger call-to-action buttons will get more attention and improve the user’s experience. While you don’t want a single massive button on your site that detracts from the design, it’s a good idea to make the size of the button correlate to its importance over everything else on the web page. If you have two call-to-action buttons on a single page, for example, the more important button should be larger.

5. Don’t Overdo It Finally, remember not to overuse call-to-action buttons in your design. If you place too many buttons they simply reduce the impact you’re trying to make. Use these buttons for the most important tasks on your website to make it easier to use and to direct customers to what they’re looking for.

Comments

Yes, the most important tip out of all these is don’t over do it in my opinion. You want to only give the user a few action steps to take per page or else the user will get confused and not no what to do. They will probably just be to confused and leave without doing anything which obviously isn’t your goal.